These lines from the iconic song of Shaam Benegal’s ‘Manthan’ (1976) describe a revolution in the dairy market of India in the 1960s. Famously called ‘Operation Flood’, the step was a rural development program that pushed the milk production of the country by six times.
Six decades later, the Union Home and Corporation Minister Amit Shah, on September 19th, announced a new white revolution (2.0), with an aim to “Increase procurement of daily corporations by 50% over the next five years”. What is ‘Operation Flood’ and why is it being introduced again?
Learning from the History: White Revolution 2.0
According to the Ministry of Corporation, the new White Revolution will ensure that ‘Market access is provided to dairy farmers in uncovered areas and also the share of dairy cooperatives in the organized sector will be released.”
The ‘Ministry of Corporation’ is a new body in the history of dairy production in India. It was created in 2021 to solely deal with cooperative societies, in particular dairy cooperatives. These various dairy corporations operate in around 70% of the country’s districts, according to The Indian Express. There are about 1.7 lakh dairy cooperative societies which cover around two lakh villages. This is approximately 30% of the total number of villages in the entire country. As far as the statewise contribution is concerned, more than 70% of villages in Gujarat, Kerala, Sikkim, and Union Territory of Pondicherry have cooperative societies.
These stats show nothing more than the vast expanse of the dairy market in India. That is why White Revolution 2.0 is an important comprehensive initiative launched in the first hundred days of the third term of the Modi Government. According to the Union Minister, the central aim of the programme will be empowering women farmers and job creation. Shah also assured complete budgetary support for the programme, which usually becomes the biggest hurdle.
The Flood of Milk: History of White Revolution
The film ‘Manthan’ captures the story of a female farmer Bindu, played by Smita Patil, who is stuck in a vicious cycle of loans. Her cow is healthy but in spite of producing good quality milk, Bindu’s survival is becoming difficult. Similar was the case with other farmers of the village. This was because middlemen and shopkeepers would give very less money for litres of good quality milk from the farmers.
To fight this, the village decides to create a ‘Co-Operative Society’ with the help of an engineer Dr. Rao, played by Girish Karnad. The work of this co-operative society was to collect, store and transport the milk produced by each farmer of the village. The best part about the Cooperative Society was that all its members were from within the village, including women.
Soon, what started in just one village in Gujarat spread to all the other villages of the state. This wave got recognised by the Government of India as the ‘White Revolution’, and The National Milk Grid was launched. The three primary goals of this national mission were: Increase in milk production (‘Flood of Milk’), ensuring affordable prices to consumers and augmenting rural income better.
The Milk (White) Revolution started when farmers of Gujarat decided to remove middlemen and traders from the supply chain to get rightful prices for their produce. As a result, India emerged as the world’s top dairy producer. The milk production increased from approximately 22 thousand tons in 1980 to over 140 thousand tonnes by 1989. Operation Flood also empowered dairy farmers by giving them control of the resources they are producing. It connected milk producers of more than 700 cities and uncountable villages.
What to Expect
Modernizing dairy production in India with a focus on women farmers appears to be a sound initiative from all sides. There is nothing wrong in boosting the dairy production of the country in the times of declining grazing pasture grounds. However, a more detailed blueprint of the initiative is yet to be released by the government.
What is expected is the inclusion of factors like internet, urbanization and pollution while formulating the framework of White Revolution 2.0. Lastly, to actually assess the results better, the country needs to wait for the implementation phase of the initiative.
